Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Today's song of the day is The Space in Between, the first track off of the How to Destroy Angels EP. How to Destroy Angels is a side project by Trent Reznor and his wife Mariqueen Maandig who as of right now have only released one EP, which can be downloaded for free from the bands website. The song is layered thick with industrial beats with Maandigs powerful voice singing over them. The song grabs your attention from the get go and doesn't let up. If you like the song, make sure to pick up the entire EP. It is fantastic.

Toro Y Moi has been a big part into my introduction to the dance/chillwave genres. His carefully constructed beats layered with synths on both Underneath the Pine and Freaking Out certainly convinced me to explore other artists of the genre. So, as I listen to the first release from his upcoming reissue of his first recordings I am shocked… And very excited.

"Dead Pontoon" opens up as the first taste from June 2009 (April 24th) with jangly guitars… Yeah, jangly guitars from Chaz Bundick. Another couple seconds in and you are quick to realize that Chaz first fell in love with the fretboard before he fell for synths and beat machines. Poppy lead guitars and bouncing bass guitars dominate this song from start to finish. However, don't mistake this as an inexperienced kid throwing riffs together. The track still has the careful craftsmanship that Toro Y Moi's other songs exude. This leaves me hoping for very exciting things to come from his newest release.

Chaz Bundick of Toro Y Moi has announced that he will release some of his early recordings from 2009 entitled June 2009 on April 24th. After the track listing below (via P4K), enter your email for a free download of the track "Dead Pontoon."

Monday, January 30, 2012

A Wilco show certainly has an atmosphere to it. While not mind-blowing, the 23-song set certainly had it's desired affect upon an attendee. The fans in attendance varied, from die hard followers, to casual listeners, to first timers possibly being dragged to the show. Either way, they left with a positive impression of the established folk-rock band.

It's clear that the band sets up their show to be more of an experience. However, it is not an "experience" in the change your life experience that some shows can be. It is an experience in that it is entertaining. Jeff Tweedy takes command of the show from the very start and holds his power over the audience throughout. Whether he is making sly jokes back and forth with the crowd or commenting on Nels Cline's guitar solos, he keeps everyone in attendance engaged. It is most comparable to a show by The Decemberists, although he doesn't go to the lengths of going into the crowd and letting fans strum his guitar. Tweedy is comparable to Colin Meloy in his interactions with the crowd and egging them on to keep them wanting more. This is the way it is a Wilco experience.

Musically it is certainly still enjoyable. Being a frequenter of My Morning Jacket concerts, I can say that it is in some ways comparable in the atmosphere developed by the crowd. Those who have been fans for years anticipate every song like it is the last. Guesses of the next tracks to be showcased are murmured in between songs while reflections of the last are always favorable.

The music though is not on the level of a band like My Morning Jacket. It's not that it isn't as good, it's just they are limited in some ways by their genre and catalogue. They do not had many songs that are able to allow the musicians to freely express themselves through their instruments. Instead, the tracks are best described as "tight." Each track is performed with precision and near perfection. Extended jams are hard to be found, as well as instrument substitutions and major tempo shifts. The set is instead merely 20 to 23 songs of well performed and enjoyable folk rock.

That doesn't mean the show is bland. "Impossible Germany" was certainly the highlight instrumentally. Cline took off on the guitar solo that the studio version destined him to take and he emulated it in a near flawless format. That is another aspect of the show that was certainly impressive. With Tweedy leading most songs with his acoustic rhythm guitar, the tracks are each close imitations of the studio versions. They leave you satisfied as a first time attendee yet after a while it feels like you may beckon for more from the tunes you have heard so often over the years.

The setlist was heavy on their latest release, The Whole Love, which was certainly to be expected. While they covered seven tracks from the record, they opened with the back to back burners of "One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" and "Art of Almost" and then shifted into the lead single "I Might." Tweedy teased the California crowd before they broke into "California Stars" and the Bay Area residents gleefully sang along at his bidding. While the opening tracks were certainly pleadable, the show remained consistent in it's positive energy as it build into the end of the first set. From "I'm Always in Love" to the set closer "Shot in The Arm" was certainly the highlight of the entire show. That was at least where the energy peaked.

The one disappointment was at the lack of tracks from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Although, I cannot say I am truly disappointed because I know how bands struggle to get out of the shadow of their hit albums. I certainly enjoyed the other tracks from the other releases, but my heart was with YHF and it's opening track "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" which was noticeably absent. Instead the two tracks from their famous LP were "Jesus Etc. and "War on War" which were absolutely enough to keep me in a good mood.

With the encore they did nothing but maintain the posture they had built up through the first hour and forty-five minutes. Three songs was enough to show that they were not going to do anything crazy with the second set. "I'm a Wheel" is as strong of a short, sweet closer as they have in their catalogue. I would instead like to see them really taunt the crowd with a classic in the encore however. While they usually play "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" early, it would be very audacious to open the encore with it. Then maybe a jam like "Heavy Metal Drummer" or "Wilco (The Song)" to close out the set. That might be the closest to a mind blowing experience you would get at a Wilco show. But then again, a Wilco show isn't mind blowing, it's just a consistently enjoyable experience.

Metanoia: "in the psychological theory of Carl Jung denotes a process of reforming the psyche as a form of self healing, a proposed explanation for the phenomenon of psychotic breakdown."

- Wikipedia

This fourteen minute ballad was released by the band as a single in 2008. What is most strange is that it is much more similar to their later work on Congratulations (Siberian Breaks) than it is to their 2007 album, Oracular Spectacular. Like the previously mentioned "Siberian Breaks", this track changes almost more times than you can count. It is an ever-evolving gem that combines the happy melodies which MGMT is famous for with their perpetually trippy lyrics. Additionally, you won't hear teenage girls listening to this, which is a plus. (see "Kids")

Jack White, who announced last year that The White Stripes were official over, has announced that he will release his first solo LP entitled Blunderbuss on April 24th. You can check out "Love Interruption," the first single below.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Conditions (2009) is the first studio album from
the Australian indie-rock group, The Temper Trap, coming three years after
their self titled EP. The first track,
“Love Lost”, breaks in the album slowly but surely as it gains momentum throughout
the song. Repeating chords with
Mandagi’s voice dominating the song can be used to describe almost every track,
“Love Lost” being no exception. The
synth work plays nicely against the guitar work but it is clear that the album
was based around Mandagi’s voice.

If you find
the third track on the album, “Sweet Disposition”, somewhat familiar, it’s
probably because you’ve seen the indie film (500)
Days of Summer. It’s in there. Twice. While this may be an attempt to get
every sixteen year-girl requesting the track on their local hit radio station,
it is still a good song. The lyrics seem
fitting for the aforementioned high school girls: “A moment, a love, a dream,
aloud, a kiss, a cry, our rights, our wrongs.”

This is not a
light and poppy record by any means.
Track names such as “Love Lost”, “Fools”, and “Science of Fear” convey
this perfectly. Besides perhaps “Sweet
Disposition”, there are no songs that make you want to sing along. Which is probably a good thing considering
the dark lyrics.

“Soldier On”,
the fifth track on the album is perhaps the best representation of the album as
a whole, and definitely the standout track.
It starts out slowly with guitar and Mandagi’s piercing voice. Soon after comes the deep underlying base
that continues throughout. Far from
cheerful, Mandagi sings about the downsides of relationships, warning “keep
your heart close to the ground”. With
two minutes to go, the song completely transforms into an epic power ballad
including a guitar slaying solo by Lorenzo Sillitto.

Conditions is a pretty good debut album, although
the band definitely showed signs of where they can improve. It would be nice to
see a track or two with a different style to it as most of the songs on the
record are very similar. Some acoustic
work would definitely do them some good, as it would add some desperately
needed diversity to the record.

The final song
on the album, appropriately titled “Drum Song”, is a daring conclusion. It is an instrumental that starts out with
pounding drums leading into echoing guitar.
Although the absence of Mandagi’s piercing voice is felt from the start,
it does not make the song any worse. Like
the entire album, the final track is the obvious of subtle. The track gave the rest of the band a chance
to show that they aren’t completely dependent on Mandagi’s voice.

Friday, January 27, 2012

The best way to experience Into the Wild, the soundtrack, is to watch the movie. Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, wrote the album after seeing a first cut of the movie, Into the Wild. His work perfectly captivated the essence of the movie and completed it in a way that no one else could. Vedder wrote "Society", with incredible lyricism. "There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,
but if less is more, how you keepin' score?". "Society" tells the struggle of breaking all ties with societal norms. If only Bon Iver would cover this on his next trip to that magical land in Wisconsin.

Wilco is clearly taking advantage of their established nature as a band. On their tour in support of last year's The Whole Love, they have played an "Incredible Shrinking Tour" of Chicago, three sold out shows in LA, and will play three sold out shows in the Bay Area this weekend. Rather than playing one sold out show at a larger venue in each city, they are instead playing two to three sold out shows in medium sized venues. This way, they are able to reach more fans and even have more fun touring.

Having only finally dug into their discography in the past few months, I am still becoming accustomed to non-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and The Whole Love tracks. However, from what I have heard from Summerteeth, Sky Blue Sky, A Ghost is Born and Wilco (The Album), I am very positive that it will be a great show. Their genre of folk-rock with a twinge is perfect to rock out medium sized venues and then hush the crowd with a deep cut right afterwards. Their ability to reach deep into their catalogue and bring out rarities is something that is always exciting to see from any band.

Setlist wise I am fairly sure of specific songs I want to hear. "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" is a must see as is pretty much everything else from YHF. I am a big fan of the new album and am very excited to see "I Might." They have been playing The Whole Love pretty heavy each night so I would expect to hear at least five songs from it. "A Shot in the Arm," "I'm Always in Love" and "Impossible Germany" would all be lovely to witness live and I am even a big fan of "Wilco (The Song)."

Thursday, January 26, 2012

So the opening track off of Cloud Nothings' excellent new LP Attack on Memory has got us thinking... What are some great angry break-up songs? Well, check out "No Future/No Past" and others below and stream the playlist above.

It would be difficult to consider anything that of Montreal does "experimental" in comparison to their other albums. While 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? had a whole lot of triply psych-pop, 2010's False Priest was soul-funk mixed with some pop (see the track with Beyonce's younger sister Solange). However, there is a moment on the opening track of their newest album in which Kevin Barnes' voice skip's with computer filtering and sounds eerily similar to Thom Yorke on Radiohead's weirded out yet excellent Amnesiac. It seems as if of Montreal is doing some similar "weirding out" on Paralytic Stalks.

The darkness of the record is evident from the very first line of that very first track. While on the cheerful and sexually charged False Priest Barnes opened up singing, "i see it girlfriend, i got so lucky with you," he opens their latest album with, "you are what parasites evolved from, still an unanswered question." Yes, there is a gloomier aspect to this LP than their previous few releases. However, some of the pop elements and escalating harmonies of the albums from their past are still out there to be found. The previously mentioned powerful first track flows into the blissful instruments of the next even though it is still accompanied by some negative lyrics. The whole album is littered with glimpses of their poppier past.

The record as a whole shows intriguing transitions between this light and dark. It's as if Barnes was battling between a subtle happiness and a deep depression while writing both the music and the lyrics. These transitions grab the listeners attention during the laggish part of some tracks. There are also in between stages, where the mood is of a very neutral feeling, leaning towards a wicked side.

The lyrics, while more shadowy than in the past, still have their classic form. He takes a perfect combination of those archetypal exteriors and mixes them with the dismal mood of the entire record. On one song he sings, "ahh i got your letter and it hurt me in so many ways," while the very next track he sings, "lately you're the only human i believe in," and later speaks, "i wanna get all fucked up and tell you how i really feel." It's something we've all heard before from the Athens group while it's also new in the sense that it is surrounded by this ongoing battle between light and dark.

All of this being said, the standout character of this record is in it's structure. It is nine tracks in total, pushing fifty eight minutes. It includes four songs over seven minutes, with one over thirteen, and one under three minutes. The track listing is clearly an integral part of the album.The shortened songs are set to the front, getting the major pop themes out of the way, and then flows into the shortest song, "Malefic Dowery," which leads you into not knowing what will come next. The last four are each over seven minutes and total over thirty-seven minutes as a whole.

Throughout these tracks, you are set on thinking that predominantly the darkness has consumed Barnes while brief windows of opportunity make you think differently. There is an inspiring moment on "Ye, Renew the Plaintiff" that is only cut off when he is on the verge of screaming, "it's eating a hole in me," over a guitar solo that seems to have erupted from a mental asylum. As it breaks down into an affected voice that is yet again reminiscent of Radiohead, it teases a cracked out ending only to break into a spiraling instrumental jam sampling copious amounts of instruments.

This record is tripped out and poppy, and as we mentioned on "Wintered Debts," it samples a little bit from their discography as a whole. As a whole, the constant struggle between good and evil is both annoying and addicting to the listener as you are holding on to hear what will come next. This is most evident through the last two tracks which combine to nearly twenty-one minutes. The second to last is yet another track that stumbles along like a back LCD trip. As the final song begins, there is hope for a happy ending to the album until it yet again descends into the creepy aura that we have often compared to Radiohead circa Kid A and Amnesiac. However, even as it seems though Barnes has given into the depression, he responds with one of the most inspiring album endings I've heard in my lifetime. The song rises upward into Kevin alone on the piano as he sings, "till this afternoon i was a nomad, no country would call me it's son." The piece is beautiful and stirring as the voice sings of himself as an outcast who is finally accepted. The hair-raising voices that arise are no longer disturbing, but instead warm, as they surround the character and welcome him into their clan.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Another great group coming from across the pond these days is Post War Years. While they have more than one release as of yet, they are still relatively unknown and qualify for our Newsic category. Their latest release is a track entitled "All Eyes" which you can listen to below. Sounding strictly electronic, the track evokes a darker theme like a band like Animal Collective or Gauntlet Hair (they even have a track entitled "All Eyes") but the best comparison is likely Neon Indian. The strong bass is linked with some funky keyboard tones. It's as if it's a deep and shady synth tune that just wants to break out into a dance track. On top of all of that, there are some stellar lyrics and vocals. Ever consider calling someone a "cigarette burning?" What a great line to sit down and ponder as you lay back into this excellent track.

Before "Midnight City" was ever thought of. Before Anthony Gonzalez was selling out almost every concert. Before his band M83 had the song of the year according to Pitchfork; came something that was a little more ambient and shoegazer in a way. From his second album titled Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts comes the song "Run Into Flowers". Other than having the coolest album name, you can see that some of his best music was made long before he put a picture of Mrs. Piggy on crack on the cover of an album.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The song of the day for this Tuesday the 24th of January comes from the famous British electronic artist Luke Vibert's project called Wagon Christ. Featured as the first song off his album Tally Ho!, Vibert combines beautiful piano melodies with think industrial beats to create a song that is perfect for your altered state of mind. Listen up readers, this one is a bit different.

Guitars might be the greatest invention ever. Like ever ever. That and headphones/speakers to listen to people play guitars out of. "Wasted Days" is the longest and most epic (I hate that word but it fits here) track from Cloud Nothings excellent new LP Attack on Memory (Out tomorrow 1/24). Not only are the guitars staggering on this song, but the anger in which they are played makes them exponentially better. There is an anger on this entire album that seems to come to a head during this particular track. While the opening is fast paced and rolls around the lyrics, the middle is consumed by a slower paced jam that builds and builds. The guitars revolve around each other like two pit bulls circling and waiting to strike at each other's necks. At nearly nine minutes long, this is a song that could seemingly convey multiple musical stylings yet it evokes essentially one: angry guitar slaying. As the chaos that is the core jam rises, you as the listener sense that something crazy is bound to happen. The song delays this for nearly as long as it possibly can and then even teases you with a minor little bridge. Not until there is just around fifty seconds left does it finally break, but when it does you can just imagine being at a concert and witnessing the bedlam it would be. Listen to this song on loud. And be angry. Because it will just make it that much better.